


Tears on Stone

by SerStolas



Series: A Hero from Stone [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Grief/Mourning, Minor Character Death, Strained Friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 19:25:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12871374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerStolas/pseuds/SerStolas
Summary: Warden Loghain Mac Tir is dead, left in the Fade by choice by Inquisitor Lavellan.  There aren't many people who mourn the Hero of the River Dane, but those that do gather quietly, and reflect on their lives, and the life of a very complicated man who did both good, and evil.





	Tears on Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Dragon Age belongs to Bioware
> 
> I know a lot of people aren't fond of Loghain. He did some fairly terrible things, even if he believed he had the best of intentions. It's a subject I've considered a few times, and this series was the result.

She was the Queen of Fereldan, so the rain and smell of web mabari was a given.

She stood alone before the stone monument to those who'd fought in the Battle of the River Dane, not far from the river itself. Her small contingent of guards and a single lady in waiting hung back a ways, under shelter of trees and tent, with the horses that had brought them here. When Anora Theirin had advised her husband and co-ruler, King Alistair Theirin, that she would be visiting the monument at the River Dane, he'd merely advised to take guards and told her to be careful. He hadn't offered to accompany her, he never would, but he hadn't looked at her coldly as he once might have.

They both knew she was going there to mourn her father. Alistair had never, and would never, be a fan of Loghain Mac Tir because of the Battle of Ostigar, but he'd learned to treat Loghain with a civility since then, if a chilly one, on the few occasions that Anora's father had been able to visit her.

When the letter had come from Varric Tethras, and a second short apology and expression of condolences from Inquisitor Lavallen, telling Anora of her father's death in the Fade, she knew that few people would mourn Loghain's passing. 

She would mourn, and perhaps some of the few and far between friends he might have among the Grey Wardens, and perhaps even Hawke, but there would be less than a dozen people who did. Loghain Mac Tir was remembered in part for his exploits during the war for Fereldan, but more for his betrayel for King Cailain. Then he'd taken part in the Joining and become a Grey Warden, and people ceased to see the current him as anything other than another Warden in armor. Anora recalled one of the few conversations she'd had with Audra Aeudcan on the subject, on one of the woman's rare visits to the castle.

"As a Warden, people will accept his presence and rarely look beyond the armor," Audra had told her. "It's the kindest thing I could have done, Anora. I know Loghain regrets what he did. It took me a long time to really forgive him...forgiveness doesn't mean you forget what was done, but it means you learn to live with the aftermath, for me, anyway."

And Anora had remembered that Audra had been framed for the murder of her oldest brother by her other brother, and even then, she'd chosen to put her remaining brother on the throne of Orzimmar. Audra had hated it, but she also knew for most of her fellow dwarves, those who weren't normal, it might improve things. She didn't approve of her brother's choices, but for her, it had been a question of greater good.

"I'm tired of killing," Audra told Anora. "So even though they've done unspeakable things, there are certain individuals I let live...If I'd killed my brother, his son would have become casteless, and likely abandoned. And killing Loghain wouldn't have brought Duncan or the other Wardans back. Hawke and I both had to make our own sort of peace with your father. He and I have a strained friendship, but it's still a friendship."

Anora quietly lay the lilies she held at the bottom of the monument, ignoring the rain around her. She'd grown up a peasant, and even becoming Queen hadn't changed some parts of her. The rain was just a part of life, just as death was. She'd always expected to get a final letter from her father, advising her he was headed to the Deep Roads when the calling became too much. Instead, he'd been a hero, one final time, and remained in the Fade to allow the Inquisitor and her party to escape.

Anora stood for almost a quarter of an hour, lost in her own thoughts, rain mixing with tears on her face.

The sound of horses nearby drew her out of her reverie, and she turned, surprised to see horses coming from the opposite direction of her camp. Out of the rain and mist, two figures rode. As they got closer she could see they were both dressed in Gray Warden armor, one clearly human with a bow across his back. The other was shorter and stockier, a dwarf from the looks of it.

Mild relief swept through Anora as Audra Aeudcan dismounted and approached. She carried small yellow daisies in one hand, and Anora was reminded that yellow daisies had been her mother's favorite flowers. 

Audra lay the flowers beside the lilies Anora had brought then turned to Anora. The two women regarded each other for a moment before Audra pulled Anora into a gruff hug.

"I'm sorry, Anora," Audra told the Queen of Fereldan quietly.

"You didn't consign him to the Fade, he made that choice," Anora replied, wiping tears from her eyes. Her relationship with the Hero of Fereldan had always been an odd one. Anora knew that Audra and Alistair had once been lovers, but ended their relationship when Alistair got engaged to Anora. Audra had also chosen to spare Anora's father when she could have easily called for his death. Alistair would never speak to Audra except in official capacity, but an odd friendship had grown between the two women.

Audra glanced around as the second Warden dismounted and came to her side. He dipped his head to Anora, and she was vaguely surprised to recognize Nathaniel Howe. She knew he'd become a Warden, but she didn't expect him to be traveling with Audra.

"The Wardens lost a good man," he remarked to Anora as he regarded the monument and the flowers. "A few of us will miss him at least."

"Few enough people will mourn me when I'm gone," Audra said, trying for lightness, but Anora could sense an underlying pain, "So it makes me reflect on those I mourn a bit more." She glanced up at Anora. "Your father was one of the best shield Wardens I knew. And he had a weakness for a particular dish the dwarven Wardens make out of mushrooms."

"Thank you, for remembering the good," Anora said quietly. She sighed. "My father...was a complicated man. I will always remember his care and kindness in raising me, but what he did..."

"Some sins can entirely be washed away," Audra finished for her. "I can say your father did what he could to atone for his actions. He went out of his way to save a number of people while he and I were out hunting darkspawn. He wasn't a saint, but he wasn't a completely evil man either. Better that we remember the good and the bad...better that we remember, Anora."

"Because most people won't," Anora replied a little sadly. 

"When you had little ones, you will teach them," Audra told her. "Of their grandfather, of the good and the bad."

Anora laughed, a little bitterly. "It is difficult to have children when I may be barren and my husband was a Warden."

Audra exchanged a glance with Nathaniel. He placed a hand on Audra's shoulder and squeezed it, and Anora realized why he traveled with Audra. There was a love there, stronger than anything Audra had once had with Alistair.

"We're closer to a cure, I think," Audra told her. "It isn't a cure all for everyone, but it can help some Wardens, and I believe Alistair may be one of them. Hopefully I'll have something more for you in a few months, then you can talk with mages that specialize in healing. There may be a chance for a child yet, Anora."

The Queen of Fereldan found herself smiling a little. "Somehow, Audra, even in the worst of times you manage to cheer me up." She considered the two. "Come back to camp with me and have dinner, a least, as it is getting late, before you head out again tomorrow?"

Nathaniel eyed Audra. "I think we should, love, you've been pushing yourself a little too hard, recently."

Audra smiled wryly and nodded. "I never could refuse Nathaniel's advise anyway. We'd be honored."

Audra and Nathaniel collected their mounts and followed Anora back towards the camp. No one asked why the Queen of Fereldan was camping rather than staying at an inn, and the guards didn't bath an eyelash when the two Wardens joined the Queen for dinner that evening.

When Anora rode away with her guard the following morning, back towards the capital and her husband, she did so with a lighter heart.


End file.
